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Future of Yineland. 



(A LECTURE.) 



BY JOSEPH TREAT. 



ViNELAND is a power, and it will ripen into a 
most wonderful power. It will grow to be a great 
city, its 12,,000 will become 50,000, and at length 
100,000; and then it will be as much greater than 
any other city of 100,000, as it covers more terri- 
tory — it will be city and country in one. 

And it will call hither intellect, culture, worth, 
from every part of the country, and itself become 
fountain-head: Boston is literary, the Athens of 
America, the *'hub of the universe:" Concord is 
redolent of the fame of Emerson and Alcott, and the 
live memories of Hawthorne and Thorcau : but 



Vineland yet will cull from all, and develop a 
society superior to all. 

And the whole of New Jersey will in time be a 
city, city and country together, to supply Philadel- 
phia and New- York: but Yineland will be looked 
up to as pioneer and exemplar, by all these other 
settlements, so that greatly, what she does and is, 
will point out the way to all. It is written in the 
book of fate, and we could not stop it if we would, 
but fifty years will see it, that Vineland will be one 
of the greatest head-quarters of the world! Then 
what should she become, what New Features should 
be grafted on her beginning, to make lier worthy of 
her Destiny? 

One need only refer to and commend the fine 
features which have already made Vineland. First 
of all, that feeling of common sympathy and interest, 
of fraternity and oneness, that makes us all Vine- 
landers, friends, neighbors: that ignores the fact 
that we are Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, 
Episcopalians, Unitarians, Spiritualists, Infidels, 
Atheists, and makes us one united community, in 
that sense not sectarian, but all together, equal and 
good ! There is not another place in this country 
where there is so much town-pride, town-sympathy, 
as here, so little sectarianism. No matter to what 
sect a clergyman or lajnnan from abroad belongs, 
when he comes here, nor, for how short a time he 
comes to stay ; instantly the generous spirit of the 
place seizes him, and while he remains he must be 



catholic and liberal. Yineland will be unsectarian, 
even it other places are not; but in time all will be, 
and Vineland will lead them on to that. Only har- 
mony and unity are right, beautiful, for human 
brothers 1 

Then there are our beautiful avenues, sidewalks, 
parks, shade-trees, grass}^ road-sides, unfenced fields, 
gardens and orchards; our fruits, already famed in 
every great market, and our flowers, reared and 
trained by so many fair hands; our Floral, Horti- 
cultural and Agricultural Societies, and Lectures 
before them; our magnificent Fairs, in many respects 
rivaling or excelling every State Fair, or Fair of 
any kind in the United States; together with our 
fitting and joyous Celebration of the Anniversary of 
our Settlement. 

Then our economy recognizes Woman's great 
need to work out-of-doors, and at her work to wear 
such a dress as makes work natural, possible, easy: 
our economy greatly recognizes Woman's Rights, 
her right to be a human being, and to perform a 
human being's duties, to think and act for herself, 
as man does for himself. In not another place in 
the country is there so much regard for Equal 
Rights ; in no other place are there so many female 
farmers, physicians, lecturers, artists; in no other 
place are there so many females capable of being all 
these; in no other place is Woman such a practical, 
social, political, universal power. .,: .f,,. 

Then there is our Library, with its Association j 



oar Historical Society, with its Collection of natural 
curiosities; with our so-numerous and excellent 
Schools, Academy, rising Seminary, and universal 
encouragement of Elucation, specially including 
Physical Culture, and Gymnastics; and last, but 
worthy to be first, our perpetual and successful en- 
forcement of Temperance. 

But, right here commences our danger, and right 
here must the New Features begin. Beware lest we 
soil the fair fams of Temperance Vineland, by pi'osti- 
tuting our finest fruit, the beautiful grape, to the 
creation of Alcoholic poison by means of fermenta- 
tion ! Our own sons and daughters may then learn 
to love ! And we shall not even make money, the 
wine will not be worth so much as the grapes! The 
cities of New-York and Philadelphia will soon be 
taught to eat grapes, and then we can do literally 
nothino; toward supplying them. And we can club 
together and build one of Nye's Preserve Houses, 
and keep all the grapes we raise, the year round. 
And we can lay down our grapes in cotton, and 
keep them all winter. Eat the grapes, for they ai-e 
more to us than au}^ other fruit; but convert them 
into liquid fire — never! Keep Vineland forever a 
Temperance place! And they 5 7?/, that somewhere 
here, below ground, absolute whisky is sold to the 
young men. Search out the place, close it up. 

And Tobacco— would that that abomination, curse, 
mio"ht be banished from beautiful Vineland 1 Would 

o 

that no merchant would sell it ! Would that all- 



young ladies would constitute themselves a society, 
to refuse to associate with the 3^ouag men (not gen- 
tlemen), who by chewing or smoking, make them- 
selves perpetual nuisances! And would that the 
old, however lung they have been wedded to the 
weed, would ennoble themselves by casting it for- 
ever away, leaving every rood of our charming city 
as pure and sweet as its fruits and flowers! 

But we are already making Yineland too naked, 
too cold. From the very commencement of our set- 
tlement, on all lots, however small, belts, groves, 
thickets, of forest-trees, should have been left, to 
break the wind; and similar forest-trees should have 
been left, in unbroken hues, along all the road-sides; 
and certainly hereafter, all who buy new land here, 
should be required, as a public necessity, to leave 
sufficient portions of forest. People come to Vine- 
land and Hammonton to tind a w^armer climate, but 
ali'eady they are going away because it is so cold — 
they have made it so! and they will go somewhere 
else and cut away all the timber, an 1 have to go to 
yet a new placs. At least one-fourth of every coun- 
try should be timber, and one-fourth of every lot 
here should have been left, to prove in the end, far 
the most rahiahle part of tlte lot! ^^^That is a fatal 
mistake, that our fruit-trees when grown can take the 
place of the timber: our fruit-trees will never be 
large enough, we shall aluxtys need screens of ibrest 
and evergreen. As it is, we may yfet be compelled 
to plant evergreen screens to protect owx fruit from 



8 

the blighting winds; and even, the town might find 
its account in providiDg such a great outlying wind- 
break, as a town-affair; but at least, the magnificent 
timber covering our public Park, is worth ten times 
more to the place than the land on which it grows 
ever could be! Planting our road-sides with close 
lines of pine and spruce will help remedy the mistake 
already made. But all over New Jersey, the timber 
on every white-sand knoll, should never be cut I 

Fight against it as we will, our winters will yet 
compel a return to forest. That world in the future, 
which is to be full of folks and happiness, instead of 
being made up of flaring houses, will be a world em- 
bosomed in trees 1 The true picture of a country- 
street now, is not an avenue where you can see farm- 
houses for a mile, but one where your vision is inter- 
cepted by orchards, groves, and in front an unbroken 
line of trees. China, the very garden of the globe, 
with its more than four hundred millions of people, 
and its every possible acre of soil pat to use, yet, to- 
day is one continuous bower of waving foliage and 
overhanging verdure 1 

But trees should not stand too near the house. 
Flowers and flowering shrubs, together with all 
manner of the smaller fruits, close round the house, 
but trees at a little distance, along the street in front, 
at the sides, and back. Even the most beautiful tree 
that excludes light, becomes a curse I Not a morn- 
ing-glory may be permitted to climb in front of a 
window, nor a grape-vine against the side of the 



house to darken a single pane. Ague, typlius and 
cholera are invited by darkness ! 

But we need Birds, fifty to one we have now — 
birds to protect our fruit, and for music — birds in 
boxes every-where, and in trees all over our terri- 
tory — we need to become a perfect city of birds, and 
of bird-music — a two-fold city, of men and songsters I 
Then the cats must go, or the birds will not come ; 
cats we can forever do without, birds we must have ! 

And Dogs — dogs belong to hunting, in the wilds of 
the far West ; but here, in the most civilized spot on 
the face of the earth, dogs are out of place. No dog 
has any business in Yineland 1 

But we need that all our people should unite to 
exterminate the Insects which destroy our gardens 
and orchards, and all so uniting, in one year we can 
doit: we need Lectures on Entomology: we need 
that an Entomologist should live here, and go round 
to our school-houses and address us in our own dis- 
tricts, inducing us all to extirpate the insects. We 
must, and shall, extirpate them, or not be Vineland! 

Tlien we especial l}^ need Lectures on Health. 
Science is going to teach men how to preserve 
health, how to cure disease, how to live longer; and 
this knowledge will be communicated to the common 
people, the masses, by those competent to impart it, 
in Lectures : such Lectures, to preserve health and 
cure disease, will become one of the tirst it;atures of 
civilization ; and such Lectures ought to be delivered 
here, and they will be, and tlie sooner the better. 



10 

Let us know how to keep well, and how to get well 
ourselves when we are sick ; let us know how to live 
on— and live on, and not die before our time ! 

Then there must be no such thing known here as 
Capital against Labor, must be no Aristocracy of 
wealth and pride; but we are the nobility, Labor is 
the badge of honor. Labor supports everybody, the 
millionaire, the doctor of divinity, equally with 
the plowman. Not wealth, but worth, is to give 
law in Yineland! 

So the Lawyers here will nobl}^ work in their own 
fruit-orchards, instead of pleading law for a living 
(for we shall have no lawsuits), though we shall 
cheerfully pay them for all the deeds and instru- 
ments they write for us, and all the knowledge they 
impart to us as to the law when we need to know ; 
but as to politicians and office-seekers, we shall 
never want any of them here. 

And the Doctors will be glad and proud they live 
in a place so healthy that no one can be sick, and 
they will work like all the rest ; but the people will 
be glad to pay them for their Health-Lectures, and 
for teaching them to be always well. 

And the Clergymen will also love to work, for 
tliey will know they must, that only by working can 
they preserve health, or be in a condition to perform 
their brain-tasks ; as, likewise, their generosity will 
make them glad to be able to lighten the burdens of 
the poor who pay them for their ministrations. 

And Professors and Teachers will work, and like 



11 

all others, help themselves to live from the avails of 
their labor, though a grateful commuuity will not let 
them go unrewarded for their useful instructions. 

And merchants and clerks, tailors and shoe- 
makers, editors, printers and jewelers, and all con- 
fined within doors, including all women, and espe- 
cially milliners and dress-makers, will daily labor 
awhile in the sun, for they will know that if they do 
not. Death will all the sooner come ! No man, no 
woman, can begin to live out life, who does not daily 
spend hours in the sun ! And every one of these in- 
dependent persons, as a milliner or dress-maker, 
ought to own or rent a piece of land to work for him 
or herself, cultivating flowers, or vegetables and 
fruits. And for the same labor every-where, of what- 
ever kind, women should of course receive equal pay. 
And fathers, husbands and brothers should aid and 
enable their wives, sisters and daughters to be out-of- 
doors every day, either by supplying sufficient hired 
help, or themselves assisting in the house, as the 
complement of the women assisting out of it. 

Then, to encourage frugality, both merchants and 
customers should if possible, adhere to the principle 
of No Credit — Pay as you go. 

And Yineland women must put their heel on 
Fashion, and aping the silly and worthless belles of 
the cities: since they will be women, and human 
beings, they must concern themselves about some- 
thing higher than tinsel and show, even grave duties 
and realities pertaining to human beings! 



1? 

And tlie men must be above lounging about, and 
wasting their time, as the road-side weeds show that 
too many have hitherto wasted it ! 

Still, all must have amusements; both men and 
women must unbend, recreate : so we must have 
Sociables and Reunions, Dancing Schools and social 
dances, Music Schools and music — it would be well 
in Summer, if we had a brass-band to play nightly 
at head-quarters. And we ought to abound in 
Gymnasiums, for recreation, of both men and 
women ; there should be a perfect one in connection 
with every school-house, the Academy, and Semin- 
ary, as well as a universal one in the Pantheon, the 
great circular low-walled Hall which the Weekly 
recently recommended us to build in the Park, capar 
ble of accommodating 10,000 people, with an "outer 
ring for prize-ridmg, driving, running and velocipe- 
ding generally, together with base- ball, croquet, &c." 
And for recreation not less than health, Yineland 
pre-eminently needs, and would support, a Turkish 
Bath. 

But, to make our labor more efficient, so as to 
have less labor and more time, we shall come to co- 
operate in various ways. The tendency of the whole 
world is toward Co-operation, and Vineland itself is 
but one signal illustration of tlie benefits of Co-ope- 
ration. Mr. Landis opens roads, and that helps us, 
and we buy land, and that helps Mr. Landis ; and 
then we all join together to build railroads, and make 
arrangements for shipping and marketing our fruits, 



1^^ 

so that all help all. In no other place in this coun- 
try is there so perfect and successful co-operation, in 
the matter of these arrangements. But we shall go 
on and carry the principle further. Some of us who 
often want a horse, but do not need to own one, will 
club together and own one in common, so that he 
will answer for us all. Some of us will own a cow 
in common, and then she can afford to be the very 
best cow, giving enough milk for all. Some of us 
will own costly and most useful implements together, 
and thus greatly save. And the time will come 
when we shall establish Union Stores. We have 
good merchants, but merchants are only lyiiddk-men ; 
they are not producers, but must be consumers, and 
hence take off the profits : so we shall set up Stores 
ourselves, and save the profits — we shall have such 
Stores all over Vineland Tract. And, as Harriet 
Beecher Stowe says, no village is complete without 
its steam-laundry, where the washing and ironing of 
a hundred families can be done at once, and 
better than if performed at home; and Yineland 
Yankees will in time get up such an establishment. 
And we shall yet cook and wash dishes by steam- 
machinery, so that all who wish may be saved such 
drudgery, most wonderful drudgery to women ! And 
in time a number of families living close together, 
and knowing each other well, will build a great cir- 
cular or square house, round an open area, each fam- 
ily occupying its own separate part of the house, 
that is, suites of rooms in it, but all coming together 



14 

for meals to a building in the center of the inclosed 
area, where the cooking, washing, ironing and other 
work will be done for all, saving literally, an incal- 
culable amount of time, labor and money ; and all 
this not destroying our individuality, freedom, but 
in every way perfecting both ! 

And greatly, we need a new style of building in 
Vineland, need to build to live longer, for now we 
do not live as long as we ought ; we need to build 
for air and light, often to have more or larger win- 
dows, but always to have our windows during the 
day, not darkened with blinds nor curtains ; but still 
more, to have all our windows hung with weights, so 
that they can constantly be open a little at top and 
bottom, that thus the air may all the time be passing 
through. The simple fact of all our windows being- 
hung with weights, would add one Avhole year to the 
average of every one of our lives ; that is, say there 
are 12,000 people here, and put all those people into 
one, he would live 12,000 years longer! The time 
is fast coming when, throughout civilization, nobody 
will dream of living in a house without windows 
with weights. But at least, it is murder to have one 
school-house, church or hall in Yineland, without 
such windows I 

Then there should be a reform in our Schools, 
Academy and Seminary : instead of poring over books 
so much, the pupils should study Kature and Science : 
our own Professor Willson has led the way, in giv- 
ing us school-books that teach Science ; but for the 



lo 

most part, tlirougli the whole warm season of the 
year, the pupils should go to school, with their teach- 
ers, out-of-doors — studying Entomology, and the dif- 
ferent kind.s of insects, winch are harmful and which 
not : studying Botany, and the various kinds of flow- 
ers and plants, and how to raise and take care of them 
— how to plant, sow, bud, graft, transplant : studying 
the various kinds of grasses, trees, birds, animals, 
stones, fossils, and learning about the dew, rain and 
sunlight: studying and analyzing soils, and witness- 
ing a great many practical and most interesting ex- 
periments in Chemistry and Electricity — in other 
words, gaining useful knowledge, and particularly 
preparing themselves for scientific horticulture and 
agriculture. 

And another reform, which the world is organiz- 
ing for us, and going to make easy for us, and which 
it will enable Yineland to commence, as it expects 
Yineland to commence it, is the admission of Woman 
to take her place by the side of man at the ballot- 
box. England is even now, about giving the fran- 
chise to thousands^ of women ; the Republican Party 
in this country, whicli gives the ballot to the Negro 
this year, will give it to Woman in the next great 
Presidential Campaign ; here in New Jersey, women 
did vote, and all the more easily will again ; and 
Yineland of all other places on earth, on the 3d of 
November is to make the beginning! And the no- 
ble, just mm of Yineland will say Amen, for women 
are Yineland as much as the men. and have done ai 



16 

much to make it; and when the women assert their 
right and present their ballots, the men will accept, 
and be proud that it was their glorious wives and 
daughters who led the way in the sight of the world! 
They will accept it as the onward march of the age, 
and part of the inevitable future of Vineland 1 Jus- 
tice knows no sex, but only humanity ; Equality is 
the law between man and woman ; and the men of 
Vineland make it their boast that tbey live justice 
and equality. And the reception, by the judges, of 
the ballots of the women as well as those of the men, 
will be attended with not the least difficulty, will not 
compromise the success of the Republican ticket, will 
make no difference with that result, more than if not 
a woman had voted. In Vineland, because the men 
and judges are just, and true to women, true to their 
mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, the ballots will 
be received, but in a separate box, and counted as so 
many votes of loomen in addition to those of the men ; 
but at the County-seat, and at the Capital, because 
the men have not yet been converted to justice 
and truth to woman, therefore the men's votes alone 
will be recognized and counted : but that fact that 
so many women voted, will be out; the glorious, 
contagious example will be set; Vineland will be 
quoted as proof that women can vote, and the ball will 
not stop rolling till women every-wheie do vote I 
The women of Vineland by this act will have done 
more to achieve the consummation, than all their 
talking for fifty years could possibly do ! But who 



IT 

is this that in the last Wtekly, assumes to say that 
the men of Yineland will not receive tlie votes of the 
women ? The absence of his name throws fatal dis- 
credit on his assertion, and is an angary that the 
prediction of such injustice is not true. The men of 
Yineland ivill receive the ballots of the equal, noble 
women, especially, when those ballots will not in the 
least prejudice their own ticket, nor jeopard its suc- 
cess. The author of the statement in the Weekly, 
only made the assertion because he supposed the 
female ballots were to be counted with the rest ; had 
he known they were to be counted as so many 
icomen^s votes, in addition to all those of the men, 
even he would gladly have bidden the women vote, 
as his whole article shows. So that all are going to 
invite the women to exercise their right, and welcome 
them to the polls next Tuesday! — [Election-day 
came, the women provided themselves a ballot-box, 
appointed judges, and cast 172 votes.] 

But in addition to all other Societies, Yineland 
needs a Scientific Association, and already numbers 
Scientists enough, both men and women, to meet 
monthly, semi-monthly, or even weekly, to read, 
each his or her own paper on some Scientific theme, 
after the manner of the British and American Asso- 
ciations for the Advancement of Science. Science 
has already become the world's great Providence and 
Savior, and we need to cultivate it, especially the 
practical Sciences, Agriculture, Horticulture, Botany, 
Entomology, Natural History, and to these are eesen- 



18 

tial, Geology, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mete- 
orology, and even Astronomy ; and we have both 
men and women, whose papers on these themes 
would call out, interest, and io struct the largest as- 
sembly. Our Science would be the right hand of 
Vineland, and of all its progress. 

And our Historical Society's Collection should 
grow into a true Museum, always accessible to the 
public ; and every school-house, the Academy, and 
Seminary, should be fitted up with a cabinet of natu- 
ral curiosities, to serve for themes of study in Win- 
ter, in lieu of the live world that would beckon all 
out-of-doors in Summer. 

And in addition to our Library, in all our school- 
districts there should be Readinac Rooms, where 
should constantly be kept the best late literature, all 
the Magazines of Science, Art, Criticism, and Re- 
form, with all the great Newspapers — such news- 
papers (as the N.-Y. Tribune) are great educators. 
And support our own newspapers — pay the printer 
— read no paper for which the publisher has not 
the money in his pocket. Then he can give us a 
better paper, and Vineland needs the very best of 
papers, and the very best of editors — and better, 
both are bound to become ! 

And Lyceums we shall need in all our school- 
districts, for our youth, as well as for others; and 
Courses of Lectures will constitute part of the intel- 
lectual bill of fare served up for our good citizens. 

But we need Lectures of yet another kind, Lee- 



19 

tures cl livered on any svlject given the speaker after he 
rises to his feet ^ and stands before his audience. What 
we want for the whole people of Vineland, and espe- 
cially for the youth in our Schools, Academy and 
Seminary, is Education, learning to think; but there 
is no such education as that which enables a man to 
speak an hour on any possible theme given to him 
after he rises to his feet, and at last, no man is edu- 
cated who can not do this; and then hearing such a 
Lecture is the double superlative of education — 
first, there are all the great, eloquent, beautiful, 
incomparable things, the gifted speaker, inspired by 
the occasion, says — and secondly, there are the infi- 
nitely more, and perhaps more interesting and im- 
portant, things, all he says, suggests, for the greatest 
speaker in the world never says, half he (unknown 
to himself) hints. To deliver such an Improvised 
Lecture is the severest ordeal to which the human 
intellect can be subjected, and to hear such a one is 
the greatest treat, the highest furnishing^ possible to 
any man! What would you not give to hear 
Charles Sumner deliver such a Lecture, on any- 
thing you might give him after he stood before you, 
nothing, something, a nit, speckled^ chargog-mandiog, 
beeble-booble-bonihle-bumhle? Do you think there is 
ANYTHING on which a great, glorious man can not 
speak an hour? This Universe of existence is one 
and you can not talk about anything, without talk- 
ing about everything! Vineland ought to have such 
Lectures as these. 



20 

And we need Publio Conversations. A. Bronsou 
Alcott holds Conversations, always on a subject 
announced, and few questions allowed to be asked 
on the subject; but we need that some one should 
hold Conversations here, and all ask questions on 
any subject — put the man to our use, get out of 
him all that he knows, make all his great culture 
ours, as if each of us had read, and studied, and laid 
up, all that he has done, because we can hear him 
say it all 1 What if you could thus ask anything 
you pleased of Humboldt, the most universal of 
men ? or of Agassiz, the world's greatest living nat- 
uralist? or of any great Scientist? — or ask a man 
what will cure the bite of a rattlesnake, or a mad 
dog, or small-pox, or cancer, or cholera, or consump- 
tion, anything and every thing anybody wishes to 
know, the very cream and flower of a man's life ? 
No man ever gave so much for so little money, as he 
who would thus answer all your questions on the 
most vital subjects, even to saving you from Death 
itselfl Such Conversations and Lectures would be 
Education to Yineland, would be to make all Vine- 
land go to school: we should need a hall that would 
hold 5,000 people : the fame of our Conversations 
and Lectures would go out every- where, and bring 
the elect from every quarter to dwell among us. 

All this would be to make Vineland a true Uni- 
versity, such a University as now, nowhere exists 
on the planet; and to make Vineland a perfect Uni- 
versity is to get to the end, beyond which we can no 



21 

further go. We shall not need to send our sons 
away to a University, a greater, a better, a perpet- 
ual University is here ! 

Then Vineland only further needs Aspiration, 
Ambition — Ambition to become all this : let Vine- 
land become all this, even if she stands alone, let 
her not wait for any other ! Chimborazo does not 
ask Cotopaxi whether himself may tower above all 
the Andes, nor, among the Himmelahs, Chumularee 
take his cue from lower peaks around ! 

This will be making History ! Charles K. Landis 
made history when he founded Vineland ; the place 
has been making history every day since ; it is 
making history to-night: then let it make this 
greater, more glorious history, ripening into this 
realization we all so fondly desire ! 



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